According to recent reports by the United Nations Population Fund, India’s population is estimated to surpass China and become the world’s most populous country by the early 2020s. Along with this, more than half the Indian population is less than 25 years, as reported by LiveMint. Indeed, this would make India the world’s most populated country with an average age of 29 by 2020.
In spite of this significant demographic, there has not been any concrete government policy regarding the population. It would have been comforting to see if any political party had addressed this issue in its manifestos, considering the fact that it is election season. Unfortunately, our parties seemed to only have been interested in killing people, since most of the election speeches only talked about India’s military might and the bombing of Balakot.
There are several frustrations when it comes to the youth regarding everything about sex. All discussions related to the introduction of “Sex Education” never seem to gain momentum and end along with the debate itself. Thanks to the lack of any government participation in this matter, our youths remain somewhat oblivious.
Consequently, we all know where they turn to for information. However, even this “information site” has been banned by the government. The young people of India are therefore denied access to sex education and to sites where they could possibly learn something regarding how “it’s done”. So, should it be our problem and responsibility if the population of our country keeps on growing uncontrollably?
Our policymakers must realise that our country is gradually moving towards demographic Armageddon and the young population of the country is not equipped to handle this population dilemma. Though, in schools, students somewhat get a tiny tryst with the concept of sex in ‘that’ biology chapter. However, there are plenty of articles on this very platform itself to tell us that such chapters never make it to the lesson plans of teachers who skip them entirely.
Luckily, in my school, I was fortunate enough to have the chapter be taught. Apart from this, the boy’s school in Shillong where I studied organised a sex talk. A gentleman, who was actually a concerned parent, was kind enough to arrange the talk. It was a liberating experience where we could all share, discuss, and ratify our concepts about it. But the problem still remains. A group of over 100 well-informed boys in ‘peripheral’ Shillong will not a solution tosolve this country’s sex dilemma.
Apart from the first step of opening up, that is. talking freely, we need to address the issues of the stigmatisation of sex as a practice and as a topic of our conversations. The problems of the LGBTQIA community too is paramount and needs to be addressed, for there are many gay, lesbian and other Indian youth who remain silent on their sexuality for fear of discrimination and being ostracised.
As an aspiring policymaker, it is disheartening to see that you have so much planned for the prosperity of your nation. But with issues such as the aforementioned, particularly the issue of population, not being sufficiently addressed, you would only wish to cocoon yourself from this dystopia. With the NDA government seeking a second term, we can already understand the future of sex education and the de-stigmatisation of sex in general if they succeed in returning. Perhaps a demographic Armageddon is inevitable. Perhaps the youth must submit itself to such a future.